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Soldier Toy Disarmed at Airport
BBC News ^
| Monday, 5 August, 2002
| BBC Staff
Posted on 08/05/2002 12:36:20 PM PDT by jjm2111
A doll caused a security alert at an American airport because its two-inch plastic gun was considered a dangerous weapon. Judy Powell, 55, from Walton on the Hill, Surrey, bought the GI Joe toy in Las Vegas and packed it in her hand luggage.
But security staff at Los Angeles International Airport refused to let Mrs Powell on board the plane with the replica rifle.
Mrs Powell had to put the gift - minus the rifle - in her suitcase so it could go in the aircraft's hold.
Mrs Powell said: "I was simply stunned when I realised they were serious.
"Security examined the toy as if it was going to shoot them and looked at the rifle.
"I was really angry to start with because of the absurdity of the situation.
"But then I saw the funny side of it and thought this was simple lunacy."
A spokesman for Los Angeles International Airport said: "We have instructions to confiscate anything that looks like a weapon or a replica.
"If GI Joe was carrying a replica then it had to be taken from him."
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: airport; airseclist; banglist; guns; pc; retards; security; stupidity
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To: Tauzero
Thank you for the confirmation that this sort of dementia is a world wide illness.
When does the next spacecraft depart for a planet populated by sane inhabitants ?
61
posted on
08/06/2002 5:21:23 AM PDT
by
Dukie
To: Dukie; Travis McGee
No, wait ...I saw the reference to the lady from England & mistakenly thought the disease had spread.
Fortunately the insanity is still confined here.
62
posted on
08/06/2002 5:23:49 AM PDT
by
Dukie
To: A tall man in a cowboy hat
"They can have my toy gun when they pry it from my cold, dead, kung-fu grip" - Joe
63
posted on
08/06/2002 5:38:28 AM PDT
by
kaboom
To: JZoback
The lady was about 75, wore glasses , and smiled the whole time ....God knows why she knocked on my flip flops . maybe there is a brand of C-4 flippers out there that I don't know about .
My wife was frisked on the flight down . I told them she did look Arab-Italian .. Should have seen the looks I got from that remark .
You DON'T need a sharp object . A few feet of monofilament around the inside brim of a sports hat is enough to cut anybody's throat .( Good idea, Huh??)
64
posted on
08/06/2002 5:42:01 AM PDT
by
Renegade
To: jjm2111
Anyone ever read "Gormenghast"? That's the first thing I thought of when I first heard this story.
To: savedbygrace
"Knuckle-dragging idiots?"
Intrinsic Human Replicas, manufactured on the cheap in Jovian sweatshops.
To: Dukie
Mass dementia among a dumbed down population means stormy seas ahead, because such a population will be easy for a govt to manipulate into pogroms, genocide etc.
To: jjm2111
To: Bloody Sam Roberts
No, what is it? a Novel?
69
posted on
08/07/2002 5:02:40 AM PDT
by
jjm2111
To: jjm2111
No, what is it? a Novel? Yes. It is novel written by Mervyn Peake.
Written in the 1950s, Peake's novel is a labyrinthine plot of hysterical lunatics, arcane rituals and degenerate bloodlines, with so much double-crossing amongst the characters that it puts the average episode of Dallas to shame.
An acclaimed triumph of the written word, "Gormenghast" is splendidly excessive in its description of the filth and squalor in a disintegrating city-state.
This episode at the airport with GI Joe just brought to mind the kind of arcane antics that take place in this book.
When I read this account of the disarming of GI Joe, a picture popped into my head of 3 security personnel all standing around this little rifle, inspecting it with quizical looks and heads bobbing to and fro... all the while afraid to even touch it because it looks so much like a real rifle..."Good heavens! It might go off! What are we to do?"
To: Rainmist
What's a soldier without his weapon, I ask you ?? Just ask the NG troops that have to man those checkpoints with no ammo or no clip in their weapons.
To: f.Christian
Where..." I was just following orders"---came from!
That didn't work at Nuremburg.............
72
posted on
08/07/2002 7:04:51 AM PDT
by
GoldMan
To: Tauzero
It's so dumb It'd be hard to believe it was a true story if I hadn't heard so many even stupider ones.
I don't understand why someone in a position to do somthing about it doesn't finally stop the insanity.
What's in it for Bush ? Why doesn't he say something ?
73
posted on
08/07/2002 8:57:36 PM PDT
by
stalin
To: Bloody Sam Roberts
That reminds me of a time when I was traveling about eight years ago. I had a laptop computer. After making me turn it on and such, the I-can't-speak-english-as-I-am-an-immigrant security guard asked me what was in the front pocket of my laptop case. I told him it was a mouse. (The little trackball for the laptop.) He cautiously opened the flap of the pocket, peeked in for less than a second, and then slammed it shut. I really think the guy thought I had a live mouse in the pocket of my laptop case. Also, as I was a merchant seaman at the time, I had a marine sextant. The same guy thought it was a gun. This is what we're dealing with.
74
posted on
08/08/2002 5:36:25 AM PDT
by
jjm2111
To: jjm2111
This is what we're dealing with. As a fun thing to do on your day off...
Going to the airport and watching these buffoons could probably replace going to the courthouse and sitting in the gallery to watch all the miscreants grovel before the judge.
Except you'd probably get yourself detained because they'd think you were "casing the joint".
To: Bloody Sam Roberts
Actually, many of these airport security guards were ex-cons. Ex-cons giving little girls strip searches (actually many of the felons may have been removed by now.)
76
posted on
08/08/2002 8:34:35 AM PDT
by
jjm2111
To: savedbygrace
Maybe they need to carry a card explaining it
This is a replica
This is not a replica
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